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Length: 3:49
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: In
Iraq, a fledgling government struggles under what can
best be described as a fragile democracy. Earlier
today in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
urged tribal leaders to unite and end the bloody
sectarian violence that threatens to plunge the
country into civil war. Our Michael Ware explores the
dangers on the road to democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Car
bombings, an ongoing guerilla war, sectarian
slayings, and an ailing economy; the stakes couldn't
be greater for the people of Iraq or for the Bush
administration.
BUSH: A failed Iraq would make America less secure.
WARE: What's harder to see is the solution.
BUSH: The strategy is to help the Iraqi people
achieve their objectives and their dreams which is a
Democratic society.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): No, there's
no democracy at all because you can see the situation
right now, from the killing, terrorism, looting.
WARE: If democracy is the answer, where is it at?
According to America's closest political allies in
Iraq, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the new
democracy was planted too quickly for it to take
root.
AYAD ALLAWI, FORMER IRAQ PRIME MINISTER: No, it's not
really a democracy.
WARE: Though Iraqis to the ballot box three times --
once amid violence, twice with the insurgent's
approval -- Allawi insists the political process has
stalled.
ALLAWI: Elections are not democracy. There are as
lawlessness. There is no institutions, no -- even no
judiciary institutions here that you can go and air
your problems. Democracy is also about checks and
balances, we don't have this at all.
WARE: He claims power is vested within shadowy groups
within the government, with Iranian links and militia
connections. U.S. officials say it's too soon to pass
judgment on a fledgling state mired in war.
COL. DANA PITTARD, U.S. ARMY: It is an Iraqi style
democracy, no one expected it to be an American style
of democracy.
WARE: Death squads, terrorism and the influence of
neighboring Iran are hurdles, U.S. military
commanders and officials say, but the foundation
stones are at least tentatively in place.
PITTARD: However, for this new Iraqi government to be
able to have credibility, Baghdad must be stabilized.
WARE: A massive joint American and Iraqi operation is
underway in the capital. Twenty-two raids against
death squads, says a U.S. military spokesman, and
28,000 buildings have been cleared, with tens of
thousands of troops entering one troubled district
after another, curbing sectarian murders as they go.
A senior U.S. official says "Operation Together
Forward" is the best way to help Iraq's new prime
minister, a man without a militia of his own, counter
the militias, many embedded within his government and
undermining his authority. But Allawi, who worked on
operations against Saddam for more than a decade,
claims the U.S. plan will fail unless there is a
major change of course, as more people lose faith as
drift to the militias and the insurgency.
ALLAWI: Go, take any Iraqi at 8:00, ask him to go to
a restaurant or go to move to see a relative.
WARE: A U.S. military spokesman says the coming weeks
will tell if the Baghdad operation is truly working.
There's a lot riding on it. President Bush sees the
spread of democracy in the region as the solution to
terrorism.
BUSH: I believe it's the challenge of this -- the
challenge for this generation.
WARE: Many will be hoping, then, the nascent
democracy in Iraq is better than it looks.
Michael Ware, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)